The present invention relates to mounting brackets and, more particularly, to mounting brackets of the type suitable for use in association with rack mountable electronic apparatus bearing housings or the like.
Electronic equipment of various varieties is frequently packaged in a housing suitable for being received or mounted within with a so-called standard 19-inch equipment rack. These racks typically comprise a box-like structure in which a plurality of electronic apparatus bearing housings may be mounted normally stacked one over the other. Depending upon particular needs, the rack may be conveniently customized by mounting equipment having desired functional capabilities and by dismounting or removing any equipment not required for the particular purpose. Mounting and dismounting of the equipment housings is conventionally achieved by the use of rack mounting kits normally consisting of a number of loose parts such as adapter plates, nuts, bolts and associated hardware by means of which the housings are removably fastenable within the equipment racks.
In one known application, a number of electronic signal processors of the type used in the music industry, eg. parametric and graphic equalizers, are commonly mounted within a standard equipment rack for achieving certain performance capabilities at a single location. The individual signal processors are contained within separate housings and mounted within the rack by means of the previously described rack mounting kits. However, it is not uncommon for there to exist a need to use one or more individual items of equipment at a location remote from the equipment racks. For instance, the musical signal processors referred to above must also be suitable for use "on the road" where the equipment is transported from site to site. In this case, the housings bearing the signal processors are removed from the rack for conveyance and use as required and, of course, the various parts comprising the rack mounting kits must be suitably stored for reusage. Unfortunately, in the process, many of the parts of the kits are frequently lost resulting in a rather significant nuisance factor. In addition, the equipment housing themselves, unless specially designed, are generally not particularly suited for convenient handling wherein their portable use becomes a rather cumbersome task.
Although the prior art discloses numerous mounting brackets useful in diverse applications, none of these brackets are believed to overcome the problems noted above. Exemplary of prior art mounting brackets are the structures disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,704,395 to Hamer et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,403,641 to Baker, U.S. Pat. No. 3,730,472 to Dale, U.S. Pat. No. 2,912,119 to Robinson and U.S. Pat. No. 930,734 to Dahl.